If you were wondering when Microsoft plans to publish an official list of applications that don't work well with Windows Vista, the answer is never. When Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2, the company subsequently published a list of applications that didn't work properly (or at all) with the SP2 update. But with Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided not to issue a public list.

Instead, the company is advising both business and home users with compatibility concerns to get a copy of the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT), which includes technology that will allow users to log compatibility problems and cross-check (privately, with Microsoft and other customers) compatibility results for selected applications.

Until this month, Microsoft officials had been noncommittal when asked about plans for publishing a full Vista app-compat list, like they did with Windows XP SP 2. But just over a week ago, when I asked Brad Goldberg, Microsoft's general manager for Windows client product management, about Microsoft's plans to make such a list public, I got a more definitive answer.